8 Read the information about the winner of an American pop competition and decide if sentences 1—10 are correct (column a) or incorrect (column b). Fill in the table below with the ticks (√).

Kelly Clarkson became famous when her beautiful voice won the hearts and minds of the United States of America and she was voted the American Idol.

The twenty year old from Texas performed live every week for ten weeks to an audience of 25 million on America’s biggest ever TV show, despite never having had a professional singing lesson. She received 57% of the vote in the final.

Nobody really realized I had a talent until I joined my school choir when I was 13. My teacher

really pushed me since I was behind everyone else who had been doing it since 4th grade.’

Kelly developed quickly and before long was entertaining audiences in various competitions.

She earned a living as a waitress, a chemist’s assistant, at the movie theatre and even at the zoo!

It was a strange chain of events that really put Kelly on the path to music though. Having moved to Los Angeles after graduation, she began sending out tapes of her singing and trying to get into the music industry. However, this all stopped when her apartment burned down leaving her very poor. The young singer made the 24-hour drive home with nothing.

It was her best friend, Jessica, who was determined for Kelly not to give up and suggested she tried out for American Idol. Kelly knew nothing about it. ‘I went and auditioned for fun and here I am!’

Her first pop song went straight to number one in its first week and she hasn’t looked back since. The final ten performers from the show joined up again for the American Idol Tour, which took them from Seattle to New York playing to over 200,000 fans.

		A	B
1	Kelly had singing lessons for ten weeks before the show.
2	When she joined the school choir she sang as well as the other children.
3	Her relatives and friends did not know that she was talented until she joined her school choir.
4	Kelly sang in competitions and earned money working at the movie theatre.
5	She tried to get into the music business after she had moved to Los Angeles.
6	Kelly left Los Angeles because it was too difficult to get into the music business.
7	Her boy-friend suggested she tried out for American Idol.
8	Kelly was not determined to win the American Idol competition.
9	She won the American Idol at the age of twenty five.
10	When Kelly’s first recorded song came out it was immediately the most popular song in America.